Breaking Away
by YourAverageSpirit
Summary: Just a short, kinda sad one-shot. Ships: One-sided ReiMari, MariAli


**Heyooo**

 **So, this was originally supposed to be a really short prompt that I made for a friend, but I thought it would be interesting if I posted it and showed it to ya'll. The pairings are one-sided ReiMari (OTPPP), and MariAli.**

 **Hope you enjoy~**

* * *

It all began about 3 months after she had confessed and simultaneously got rejected. It was somewhere in the middle of June, when she was just relaxing by the porch and enjoying the spring air. Marisa had come to visit again like she always did; but she came with a bit of a surprise. "You cut your hair?"

"Yup!" Grinning as she flicked a loose strand away; the ordinary magician placed a hand on her hip and stared back down at the miko who looked more than confused. "Do you like it? I cut it just yesterday!"

"Well, it looks nice on you. But…" The miko felt a bit lost. It was almost as if she didn't recognise the Marisa standing in front of her; the girl with the long pretty blonde hair that Reimu had always wished to have. Now, it felt like she was staring at a complete stranger. She could only wonder what got into the girl's head to make her do such a thing.

Marisa frowned a bit. "But?"

 _'You looked prettier with longer hair.'_ "It's nothing." If only she had the courage to say what she wanted to.

"Do you want some tea?"

/

The next time it happened, Alice was there. The two had accompanied each other heading to the shrine apparently, since the puppeteer needed something to ask for. Reimu knew she shouldn't have been bothered as much as she was then, yet she couldn't ignore the painful feeling in her chest when she saw them approaching the shrine, laughing together with huge grins on their faces. It just felt so wrong for her, and she didn't know why.

"Looks like you two are getting along, huh?" She rested her chin on her palm; looking uninterested and bored when really, she was dying inside. "What happened? Did you bond somehow without me knowing?"

"It's nothing like that." Alice shook her head, taking a sip of the tea the red-white had so courteously made for her. "We just realised that we only fought due to our differences and tried to get to know each other with the things we liked. Which is a lot, apparently."

"Did you know that she has a bunch of books from Makai? They're so old too!" Marisa exclaimed. "Especially that grimoire of hers. What's in there anyway?"

"Powerful magic that I'm sure a 15.730192 magician like you couldn't handle."

"Hey!"

Laughing again like they did earlier, the duo seemed to not notice the small frown unconsciously making its way to the brunettes face. Reimu, herself, didn't even realise how tight her grip on her hand was. ' _Why don't you ever look at me like that? Even though I...'_

She paused; then shrugged away those three forbidden words before she could make another mistake.

 _'Never again.'_

/

The third time it happened, they (Alice and Marisa) were together again. In fact, they'd been sticking to each other for quite some time now; but Reimu never questioned it.

They were talking about some magician stuff, or (in Reimu terms) things that didn't make any sense. They looked to be in deep discussion as they always would; but there was something about them that day that just didn't seem right. She wasn't sure if it were the glances or the occasionally hand brushing; but she definitely didn't like it.

"You know, if you're going to talk about things like that you might as well do it at your house." she yawned; taking a bite from her cracker. "Why did you come here anyway?"

"It's because this girl thought you'd get lonely." Alice glared at Marisa who sheepishly grinned in response. "Even though I was sure you'd only be bothered instead."

"Well, bothering Reimu is fun anyway; so I don't see what's the problem." The blonde shrugged.

"The problem is that I should be taking my nap right now." she yawned again. "So if you both could just please…"

"What, so you're saying it'd be better if I didn't visit anymore?" It was only meant as a joke of course. Knowing Marisa, she'd never say such things so seriously. But Reimu couldn't help but fear that she actually did mean it; and scowled even more. "Hey, I was just kidding."

A short wave of relief passed her, but it wasn't enough to remove the sad feeling she had in her chest. "Of course you were. Now hurry up and get going."

Marisa would never leave her…right?

/

Her presence started disappearing after that. It wasn't too hard to notice, not with the many signs telling her.

The first sign was the lack of noise and constant tiptoeing in the night, of something going missing when she woke up the next day and the sly grin when she'd talk to the witch about it afterwards. The second was the empty shrine with no one casually eating her biscuits and telling her random stories she never actually cared to listen to. The third was the 10000 yen bill that continued to sit at the bottom of the donation box, which was usually stolen a second she'd take her eyes off it. There were many other signs that told her Marisa was no longer there, but they were too painful to mention.

The shrine was quiet that day, too. No fairies bothering her, no gap youkai surprising her, and especially no black-white witch just casually swooping in, greeting her with her the same huge grin.

Reimu had just lost the one thing that kept her everyday life boring, but she didn't even realise it.

She was afraid to.

/

"Why don't you ever visit me anymore?"

She couldn't believe things would end up like this. She had expected to just let it slip by, to just gradually adjust to this change of routine. But the pain in her heart when she woke up every morning to nothing forced her to do otherwise; and now she was standing by her door, glaring not-so-subtly at her.

"What are you talking about?" Of course she'd question her actions. She was never in the wrong anyway; it was just Reimu being paranoid. Still, she felt like she had to do this or else she'd never get the relief she needs. "I visit you all the time! Like a week ago, I was there and you-"

"You know what I mean, Marisa." her voice was a bit cracky from the tears that were begging to fall. She didn't want to cry in front of her now, not when she wanted to get mad at her the most. "You used to always come by the shrine everyday. What happened to that?"

"Hey, I get busy alright?" She looked a bit annoyed. "It's not like I can spend all my time in the shrine. I have a life to live too! And I was working on a project with Alice, so-"

"Why do you always have something to do with Alice?"

"Huh?"

Reimu could feel her heart cracking now. She _KNEW_ why Marisa spent her time so frequently with the puppeteer. It was too obvious. "Do you like her?"

"What?" Now she was annoyed. "Reimu, I don't understand where you're going with this-"

"You do, don't you? It was obvious right from the beginning, after all." Finally, she looked up. When she did, she could barely see anything through the tears forming in her eyes, begging to fall. "You love Alice. You always did."

"Okay, so what if I do?" Marisa glared at her; almost not noticing the miko widen her eyes from her statement. "I love Alice -big deal. So why are you being so annoying about it? You can't seriously still like me-"

"What if I do?"

"…what?"

Reimu continued to remain unfazed although, her eyes still fixated on the girl's golden ones. She really didn't expect things to come to this. "You heard what I said, Marisa." She seemingly glared at her, even if her eyes were full of sadness.

"I still love you."


End file.
